The photo essay by Surender Solanki found at The Caravan Shows the down side of India’s economic roads, but the Pictures still capture a sense of poetry and beauty by telling tales of people who live by the river.

When I was small even in a city like Bombay which used to be the most developed place in India water was a rare good. Rain was abundant during monsoons, yet, it would be gone away soon. I remember collecting tiny little frogs who would jump into the house in an empty wastepaper basket and put them out into the rain.

People would just have one sort of cell in their one or two room flats inhabited by large joint families that were used as a wet-room. Only the rich people in and around Malabar Hill had attached marbled bathrooms to their respective bedrooms (inhabited by each couple of the joint family).

The women of the house would fill the plastic buckets sometimes even very old fashioned steel buckets with tap water (which would run only for few hours in the early morning). Then the family routine would start with a fight over who can take a bath first and the water would be heated on the gas. You would get one bucket or maximum two bucket and then pour water over yourself with a small container.

Very often the same cell would be used for other sanitary purposes. Water closets were a rarity and a kid Indian Toilets were my worst nightmare!

Yet, water, as we all know, has a holy status in India. If you enter somebody’s house as a guest you receive a glass of water first. Water is precious and its scarcity made it even more precious.

I grew up in northern Germany where water is abundant. You just open the tap and cold and hot water just runs out of it. I grew up with the luxury of having a tub and could stay in there literally for hours until my mom would scream. I learned swimming in a pool. And, I could straight away drink the water from the tap. Things like this were a 5 star luxury in a city like Bombay in those days.

Yet, I also learned to be careful with my water consumption, i.e. only use flush ones and not leaving the tap open while brushing my teeth.

For most parts of Bombay the before mentioned things are unheard, but more and more joint families of those little flats are able to move in bigger flats, also having more then one bathroom. The families are getting smaller, the flats bigger and so does the water consumption. People drive flashy cars and wash there hair everyday.

Leaving aside nostalgia this is an import big step of a developing emerging economy. Yet, question is, what is going to be the impact.

From the big nexus my thoughts lead me to my small cross-cultural observations which are closer to me.

I would like to know what you think? What are your everyday observation in water use? what do you to conserve and save water? Where do you see a nexus?

Water has become globally a hot topic. The integrative perspective on water and shifting the focus from supply to demand and bringing the tackling water as a management issue is EN VOGUE since many years and substituted under the IWRM-appraoch. In one of my next articles I want to reflect on IWRM by considering a paper written by Francois Molle on Nirwana concept.

The integrative perspective is sensible and pushes us to think in a more complex and holistic way – it makes us think beyond the box. The previous video highlights this very graphically.

We are interdependent, more and more after the post-cold war world globalized world.

The danger might be though that if we look at the big nexus we might overlook the finer lines holding together the socio-ecological system where mankind is attached to natural resources by exploiting these for their livelihoods. The social system is complex. It consists of institutional mechanisms, such as rules and regulations, demographic changes, irrigation infrastructure, pumps and power plants, and so many more attachments.

I my next article I want to show an example of energy-food and water from Gujarat.

It is on the nexus water & energy. Both are linked strongly together as the following key messages suggest.

1. Water requires energy and energy requires water

Water is required to produce nearly all forms of energy. Energy is needed at all stages of water extraction, treatment and distribution.

2. Supplies are limited and demand is increasing

Demand for freshwater and energy will continue to increase significantly over the coming decades. This increase will present big challenges and strain resources in nearly all regions, especially in developing and emerging economies.

3. Saving energy is saving water. Saving water is saving energy

Choices concerning the supply, distribution, price, and use of water and energy impact one another.

4. The “bottom billion” urgently needs access to both water and sanitation services, and electricity

Worldwide, 1.3 billion people cannot access electricity, 768 million people lack access to improved water sources and 2.5 billion people have no improved sanitation. Water and energy have crucial impacts on poverty alleviation.

5. Improving water and energy efficiency is imperative as are coordinated, coherent and concerted policies

Better understanding between the two sectors of the connections and effects on each other will improve coordination in energy and water planning, leading to reducing inefficiencies. Policy-makers, planners and practitioners can take steps to overcome the barriers that exist between their respective domains. Innovative and pragmatic national policies can lead to more efficient and cost effective provision of water and energy services.

Several areas across urban India do not get regular water supply, forcing people to fill up pots and pans every day. (India Water Review file photo)

New Delhi : Large parts of India, the Middle East and North Africa will continue to reel under severe water stress over the next four decades, with population and economic growth being responsible for most of the stress, a new study by the US-based Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has said.

Researchers at MIT said they expected 5 billion (52 per cent) of the world’s projected 9.7 billion people to live in water-stressed areas by 2050. Also, by then, about 1 billion more people would be likely living in areas where water demand exceeds surface-water supply. A large portion of these regions — India and MENA — already face water stress.

Further, of the 5 billion people, up to 3 billion could be exposed to overly exploited conditions.

The population at 2050 under this overly exploited water stress are nearly double the current estimate (1.7 billion people), and among the future scenarios it represents a range of increase between 1 and 1.3 billion people.

While population growth and increasing social pressures on global water resources have required communities around the globe to focus on the future of water availability, climate change is expected to further exacerbate the demands on water-stressed regions.

MIT researchers used a new modeling tool to calculate the ability of global water resources to meet water needs through 2050 in an effort to assess future water demands and the impacts of climate change.

The study applied the MIT Integrated Global System Model Water Resource System (IGSM-WRS), a modeling tool with the ability to assess both changing climate and socioeconomics — allowing the researchers to isolate these two influencers. In studying the socioeconomic changes, they found population and economic growth are responsible for most of the increased water stress.

Such changes will lead to an additional 1.8 billion people globally living in water-stressed regions, the study noted.

“Our research highlights the substantial influence of socioeconomic growth on global water resources, potentially worsened by climate change,” said assistant director of science research at the Joint Program on Global Change and lead author of the study Adam Schlosser.

“Developing nations are expected to face the brunt of these rising water demands, with 80 percent of this additional 1.8 billion living in developing countries”.

Looking at the influence of climate change alone, the researchers found a different result. Climate change will have a greater impact on water resources in developed countries. This is because, for instance, changes in precipitation patterns would limit water supplies needed for irrigation.

When researchers combine the climate and socioeconomic scenarios, a more complicated picture of future water resources emerges.

For example, in India, researchers expect to see significant increases in precipitation, contributing to improved water supplies. However, India’s projected population growth and economic development will cause water demands to outstrip surface-water supply.

Overall, the results of the study highlighted the substantial influence of socioeconomic growth on the global patterns of water stress, particularly in developing nations.

Additionally, the factors that determine the sign and magnitude of water-stress response vary between major economic and developing regions. The study found that water-stress changes within developed nations are more sensitive to climate drivers, whereas developing countries are far more responsive to socioeconomic growth.

In addition, the results imply that the greatest risks to regions facing future water-stress may not be captured by extreme outcomes from global assessments of climate scenarios, but rather by regional extremes occurring within a subset of climate-model projections.

It seems to have found the famous honeypot behind the rainbow… it shouldn’t be the goal to find new resources and exploit them but caring about our resources and using them in a sustainable way that serves future generations!

Events

Legal Issues

Water Law
The online journal Water Laws is published by Smith Partners, a Minneapolis law practice serving local governments, public-private partnerships and other community institutions.

Organizations

Central for Water Commission
Central Water Commission is a premier Technical Organization of India in the field of Water Resources and is presently functioning as an attached office of the Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India.

Friends of River Narmada
The Friends of River Narmada is an international coalition of individuals and organizations (primarily of Indian descent). In particular, we are a support and solidarity network for the Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save the Narmada movement) which has been fig

Our Water Commons
“Mission: Our Water Commons seeks to transform societal decision making for water stewardship, towards participatory, democratic, community-centered systems that value equity and sustainability as a strategy. Our work is based on a set of ten water common

Portals

Our Water Commons
“Mission: Our Water Commons seeks to transform societal decision making for water stewardship, towards participatory, democratic, community-centered systems that value equity and sustainability as a strategy. Our work is based on a set of ten water common

Project

ENTIRE
ENTIRE is a two year programme funded by European Union’s Non-State and Authorities program. The main objective is to strengthen the role of civil society organisations in reforms, democratic changes and sustainable development of the water sector in th